Sulfur and nitrogen compounds in organic and inorganic substances can often be pollutants. The risk and difficulties of such compounds requires analysis of a great variety of samples or specimens. There are various and sundry approaches to analysis of sulfur or nitrogen. They can range from the classical laboratory wet chemistry procedures to dedicated instrumentation. The type and approach selected in part depends on the expected range of concentration. It is unusual to find a system which can handle multiple element analysis over a wide dynamic range.
One device is a SO.sub.2 pollution monitor for analysis of air, flue gas and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 3,795,812 is a device for inputting flue gas or the like. It detects only SO.sub.2. It is not able to handle other sulfur compounds. Moreover, it is not able to handle sulfur in circumstances differing from flue gas or air monitoring. As an example, it cannot handle a liquid discharge which may or may not have SO.sub.x in it. Moreover, this is a limited device in the sense that it responds only to SO.sub.2, not sulfur compounds of the general form of RS. Especially it is not able to handle RSN.
The present apparatus is additionally capable of handling a compound RSN, all of these being in various forms. In fact, the present apparatus is able to handle gases, liquids or solids which have sulfur or nitrogen or both therein either as a solid in mixture or as a compound. It applies to both organic and inorganic compounds, either alone or in mixture.